At his feet, always, lay a pile of handouts, ranging in value. From KSh 100, to the lesser KSh 5 coins. He was a pitiful sight and was making a killing from it.

A lime-green manilla paper was always at his feet, next to the money. It bore information that he was looking for enough money to have an operation on his bad foot. It also had information about the kid on his side, a short ghastly explanation of how an inferno almost killed the child.

Unknowingly, the Githurai folks dished out money. Hoping that the little they gave would add up and offset his hospital bills.

In 2015 December, the man and his lone child disappeared. They set up a new camp around the Machakos bus station- I picked bit of conversation that he had been exposed as a phoney. The child was not even his.

This man purports to be a beggar. He shows off a bad foot which has not healed for over five years.

When word got out that he was a con, he relocated to the Coast. He has according to reports, been using the same tactics to obtain money from passers-by.

The lone child never left his side. He stayed. Making money for a man who never got enough to go to hospital.

The lone child. A survivor of a bad fire and now pawn for a man who makes a living by acting disabled and using a child to paint a poor family. The man was arrested at the coast and is currently in police custody. Image source: Neel Akber

The police say that his arrest is just the begging of more arrests of such individuals who pretend to be disabled on the streets.

The disfigured baby in police care shortly after the arrest was made. Photo: Neel Akber

In May 2016, a woman from Kiambu was exposed for lying to motorists that she had been battered by her husband and was looking to get fare to her upcountry home.